Quote:
Originally Posted by wilsonmw04
This is not how most school systems see it. It is a liability issue, simple as at.
Personally, I find it amusing when parents don't what their kids attending public schools, but want their students to have all the benefits of being a public school student. On a professional level, I think this speaks to the quality of the FRC program across the country.
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The issue of liability is more often than not, a crutch. If the program has certified teachers running the operation, then any person in attendance should be covered under the Board's insurance. How would it be any different than sports? Yes, students from the away school would be covered under their districts insurance, but if the injury was sustained due to the host school's facilities, they would still be liable, too. Schools allow non-school groups such as Scouting to use their facilities, because they are public facilities. They often require these groups to carry additional insurance to help indemnify the school district, but it doesn't removal all liability.
Secondly, as a parent who has always had his three children in the public school system and a municipal employee, I find your amusement to parents utilizing private schools misguided. These parents still pay the same taxes as everyone else in the community, as Merideth pointed out (to the best of my knowledge, their are some communities which have separate school district taxes I believe). Those tax dollars do go towards school district budgets in the same proportion as everyone else, yet these people do not receive the same level of service as other tax payers by choice. Then they freely pay additional money to a private institution for education of their children, but this does NOT waive their rights to the same benefits and services offered to other citizens. If I were a school district using your philosophy, I'd be very concerned with the prospects of a legal challenge at some point.
Our school district is much more tolerant of home schoolers, private schoolers, and even out-of-town students since our teamed has formed into a regional group under a non-profit educational corporation. They insist on paid teachers or staffers to protect the districts interests. Home school and private school students are treated like any other tax paying citizens. Students from towns that don't offer FIRST in their districts are asked to get their home districts to contribute some funding to the program proportional to that district's student involvement.
Our home district also realizes that they get value from our team. We share donated consumable materials with the school; wood, metals, vinyl for vinyl cutters, etc. The team has also refurbished or repaired several of the school's power tools out of the team's treasury, not the Board's budget. Yes we get benefit from these tools too, so why not show good faith to the district and help them with maintenance where appropriate. Since the Board only contributes less than 20% of the team's total yearly budget, (the rest is coporate sponsorships, public donations, and team fund raising) the school system is getting more for their money, too.
Hope this gives people some ideas of how to convince a school district to change their minds.